Congratulations to the Marina City Council!
This is not something you hear very often anymore but it is, in fact, warranted in this case. Last Tuesday night the City Council decided to bring back the Cypress Knolls development proposal for consideration. While it was not an easy process they ended up in the right place.
The next step is to listen not only to the will of the citizens of Marina and two City Councils but to honor the long standing process that a City government must abide by. The creation of the RFP for the Cypress Knolls senior development spanned two City Councils. They took plenty of testimony and decided that any proposal must include a full continuum of care, include plenty of affordable housing, and try to minimize any potential changes to the current EIR on the project. The City of Marina even settled a lawsuit based on the current EIR. After sending this request out to the general development community, two development groups responded with very specific proposals.
Without going through all the steps that got us to this point, it appears that one development group remains standing. This group answered all the questions, has proven its ability to finance through the ENA process, was thoroughly vetted by the City’s financial consultants (Kayser Marston), is environmentally sensitive and most importantly they provided all the elements that the Community and two Councils asked for in the proposal.
So here we are with a decision to make. Does the Marina City Council honor its requests and follow the long standing process that makes the RFP system work for all forms of government? Or does the City Council do as the Mayor wants and throw out the entire process and start over with a smaller project that has serious economic questions about its viability?
After two developers and the City has spent well over $1,000,000 to get us to this point, do we allow the Mayor the right to veto something this important to the community and over their wishes because he wants something different? Do we open the City up for protracted litigation that could cost the City hundreds of thousands of dollars because we did not honor our word?
Of course, we could choose another path for now but what if the Mayor changes his mind again? What if the result of a new RFP does not yield a single qualified developer? This would result in another decade of blight and continued environmental damage without any project, but maybe that is the real goal.
It is time for this Council to listen to what the community wanted from the beginning. Choose the qualified developer for Cypress Knolls, honor the process and move on.
More later
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